Ladies and gentleman tonight the New York Yankees play their
final exhibition game of the 2017 spring training and Grapefruit League season
and on Sunday the team faces off with the Tampa Bay Rays on Opening Day. In a
nutshell the regular season is here and the hard decisions facing the roster
just have to be made and some of those decisions have already been made and
announced by manager Joe Girardi. Here are a few of those as we try and get
caught up here on the blog this morning. Oh and ladies and gentleman, it’s
almost time to unleash the kraken for a 162-game schedule. Anyone else get
chill bumps or was it just me?
Girardi discussed the lineup for the season on Tuesday in an
interview and revealed that he was leaning towards having Brett Gardner lead
off followed in order by Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird, Matt Holliday and Jacoby
Ellsbury. You know what Joe? You had me until you said Jacoby Ellsbury.
Ellsbury is not a fifth hitter in a lineup, he’s more like an eighth or ninth
hitter at this point assuming he isn’t going to be leading off. Fifth? Really
Joe? I see a whole lot of “Jacoby Ellsbury Sucks” and “Fire Joe Girardi” tweets
in my future and on my twitter timeline. (Follow along all season long by following
@GreedyStripes so this shameless plug will be worth it, please)
Also Joe announced that Ronald Torreyes will be the Yankees
starting shortstop while Didi Gregorius misses the first month of the season or
so with a right shoulder strain. I guess it just made too much sense to have
the better hitter in Robert Refsnyder play second base while Starlin Castro
slid over to shortstop. Whatever, what do I know?
The final major announcement was that Adam Warren will work
out of the team’s bullpen, as expected, and is no longer in the mix for the
team’s starting rotation spots they have open. That leaves just Chad Green,
Bryan Mitchell, Luis Severino and my pick Jordan Montgomery fighting for just
two spots.
And now we’re all caught up. I think. I hope. Have a great
Friday everyone. TGIF.
I just wanted to point out that Torreyes had a higher OPS+ in 6 less at bats last season than Refsnyder. Torreyes is also faster (evidenced by his four triples last year to Refsnyder's none), and players much better defense.
ReplyDeleteWith regular playing time Refsnyder may very well be a better player, but we're not talking about a season-long job here. We're talking about a month. I think Torreyes was the better choice based on history and facts, whereas Refsnyder is a total gut feeling. And unfortunately I don't think Girardi shares the same gut feeling about Ref as you do.
For a bat first guy, your bat better damn well shine in the opportunities given. Unfortunately, that has not happened for refs since his 2015 debut. He doesn't possess the tools like say Aaron hicks, who has seemingly a never ending rope of opportunity.
DeleteFor a bat first guy, your bat better damn well shine in the opportunities given. Unfortunately, that has not happened for refs since his 2015 debut. He doesn't possess the tools like say Aaron hicks, who has seemingly a never ending rope of opportunity.
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